Everyone Does This, Right?

So it's nearly time for DH to be home and I'm so glad it's Friday, but we are facing a dilemma of sorts this evening. The question: to attend or not attend the family Bible study tonight?

Now I know for a lot of people the answer is a no brainer--"Go!" "No, we'd never go!" Yeah, it isn't that clear cut for us right now. On the one hand, they are just starting a new study that is supposed to be pretty good, and tonight they give out the books and do the introductory material, etc. So it would be a great time to jump back in after a spring/summer break from it. On the other hand, DD would now be the only toddler present, and instead of having a 12 year old there to sort of ride herd on the younger kids while they all watch a movie, it would just be our DD and three other kids who are all 5 years older (or more). Hmmmmmmm. In addition, we have DS to consider--who is now a mobile baby who isn't interested in sleeping through the whole study time or being confined to my lap with a few small (and quiet!) toys.

Frankly I am leaning toward not going right now. I don't anticipate that DD is going to be able to behave herself without adult supervision, which knocks either me or DH out of the study group from the get-go. Secondly, I don't think DS is going to be well behaved without close supervision either, and at that point we are just kindly making a dinner entree or dessert for 8-10 people out of the goodness of our hearts and trucking it 24 minutes away to be able to eat it cold and pass up a lot of the other offerings due to our own pickiness as eaters. Oh, and that while we try to convince DD to eat something, anything, because she's so excited by the other kids (already) and doesn't want to waste time eating, for pete's sake!

However, I did make a big 13" x 9" pan of cookie-brownie bars this afternoon on the original plan of going, which will just go straight to my ample buttocks and thighs if we don't get it out of our house. And I am curious about the study they are going to do. And it would be nice to have some fellowship time with some of the folks from church, with DH.

It does seem like a cop-out to beg the "young kids" excuse to not do stuff, but really, if we're not able to participate at all because we are busy keeping our kids from inconveniencing everyone else (and not doing that well, given my DD's shrieking the last few aborted times we went)...is that worth it? I don't think so. I'm just trying to be honest here. And of course I'd be lying if I didn't say that vegging out on the couch with DH watching our recorded Survivor and eating some brownie-cookie bars with a big glass of milk doesn't sound oh-so-attractive after I've spent some time cleaning out baby spit-up from the Lego box (doesn't everyone have to do that on a regular basis?). And I really do think that my children going without baths for three days requires rectification this evening, don't you? Something which would not happen if we dashed off to Bible study the minute DH came in the door.

Hmmmmmm. I'm thinking the scales have been weighed here, folks. I'm calling it Survivor and bath night...and hopefully that is best for everybody.

Finding the Fulcrum Point

So I have the continual struggle (as all SAHMs do, probably) of finding the right balance between housework (so my house is not a pit of despair), playing with my children (so they aren't over tugging at me begging for attention or being naughty for same), and doing things that make me a happy person outside of being "Mommy" 24/7 (Bible study, gardening, sudoku, harp, knitting). Some days I think I handle it better than others.

Case in point: dirty dishes in the sink. Now, that does bother me. I hate having a sprawling mass of dirty dishes, pots, & pans that has taken over my double sink and part of my countertop. Rationally I know that it's only 1 dishwasher load, but nonetheless, it's been sitting there all day, demanding to be fixed and annoying me when I passed it.

However, there were other more important demands on my time thus far today. I had to do all five days of my Bible study homework today. And believe me, God does answer prayer, because I asked Him to keep my kids both asleep at the same time so that I could do it all, and He did! I have 1 table I haven't filled in, but that's it--the rest is done. I even got time to play around with my Greek lexicons and look up some of the original Greek for words that were bothering me. Hallelujah!

Also, DD had to be taken to the library for new books & storytime, something which she has missed out on for a month due to some page ripping in library books. After that, because she was so well behaved, we had lunch at our favorite local specialty market, and I miraculously made it out of there for only $16 after purchasing some Comice pears (*drool*) and lunch for DD & myself. DS ate all the tomatoes from my pizza (gobbled them up greedily is a more accurate description) and BOTH of them sacked out in the car on the way home, paving the way for my Bible study homework.

Lastly, my DS got some quality time with Mommy while his sister slept on, after I finished my homework. We played and laughed together, and then DD got the same attention while he slept when she woke up. I even went through my scrap fabric pile and sewed a little dragon hand puppet for her, after she saw something similiar on TV yesterday.

Yep, some days I think I do okay. However, pushing it to do the dishes and then blog today was clearly too much non-kiddo time for DD...who has just been "knitting" like Mommy, and unraveled part of my pain-in-the-@$$, slippery "cha-cha" yarn scarf. Grrrr!! *bangs head here* Why do I push it, why why why?? *sigh*

To be continued.

Misty Morning Part Deux

Today we have another misty morning, so I am actually playing all my good Irish music (DH scoffs at this, what I term "good" he and his family call "diddle-ee-i" music) to accompany the morning mist. Including, currently, Maire Brennan's "Misty Eyed Adventures" CD, appropriately enough! Luckily for DH, he works from home today so he gets to enjoy this splendid music as well, haha!

I did actually manage to construct a proper fire in the woodstove last night, after a few nights of fumbling and cursing when the fire would burn for a bit and go out. I summoned up all my good Girl Scout training and built a log cabin fire base, which worked very well. I kept adding logs in the proper order and had the house "roasting" by the time DH came home. So the thermostat kept the heat off for at least six hours, wahoo! I also secured a promise of more free wood from our neighbors next door yesterday, so I will be making a pilgrimage to collect that in our little mower-pulled cart. DH is insistent that we trade something with neighbors who give us free wood, and I think that is going to translate as ample baking and sharing since most of our neighbors aren't bakers.

Anyway, back to the original subject--I am thinking about the things I like or am interested in that DH is sort of "enh" about, and that includes Irish dancing and flamenco. I would love to learn how to flamenco, for the sheer fun of it. When we get our debt eradicated, I am going to look into flamenco lessons. I think Irish dancing is a bit beyond me, plus I'm quite sure that there aren't any teachers here and I'm not quite willing to do a ferry ride to Seattle just for that. However, maybe when DD is older she might have an interest in it, and then I could justify it. But, I do know there are flamenco lessons available locally. Give me a few years, I am going to give it a go! Why not? Life is too short to say, "I wish I had done that" years from now.

Well I think it's time for a new CD and also I have a rare opportunity to start my next 'fun fur' scarf while DD is occupied and DS is asleep, so I'm going to take it. This time I am going to ignore the purl one row, knit one row instructions that had my first attempt curling up like a tube and just do straight knitting, which I'm faster at anyway. Wish me luck!

Musings

Well I have comforted myself with the knowledge that our cash flow situation this month is because I am putting money back into our savings account from my overdraft oops last month, so that's something anyway. *phew* For a minute there I was thinking, "Ok, how are we going to eat?" I had scheduled it automatically and because it was entered early in Quicken, my brain just sort of ignored that line. Ah the fun of money...not!

And of course we wouldn't really have a problem eating because I am doing so well with the Grocery Game. I have done phenomenally well this week, scoring Campbell's microwave soup bowls this week for $1 each (absolutely rock bottom price!) for DH's lunches, and basically Quaker paid me to take some of their stuff off the grocery store shelves. So I was quite pleased about that, even if I did treat myself to a Tully's sugar free almond latte at the store.

Speaking of which, our local grocery store has dumped Starbucks from inside the store and swapped it for a Tully's. I like the lower prices of Tully's, and the fact that they have sugar free almond syrup (*drool*), however, I have to say the coffee is just a tad lower on the taste scale for me and their baristas are not nearly as personable. Oh well.

I am lamenting my inability to buy DS some good winter clothes through the Children's Place fall sale. In particular I am kicking myself over the sport corduroy pants which are on sale, but we have no extra moola so I can't buy them. *sniff!* They are SO CUTE! Ditto the long sleeved onesies, henley shirts, and jackets which he does actually NEED for this winter. *sigh* I am pinning my hopes on a MOPS clothing swap on the 12th, and hopefully I will get enough cute and warm things for him that it will assuage my guilt over that "inability to purchase right now even though it's a great deal" sadness that is plagueing me.

And, I have caught up with all my neighbors about their lives and such, so I feel like a Good Neighbor. I owe 1 apple pie or some other baked good to one set, and I really ought to bake something to bring along when I introduce myself to the 2 new sets of neighbors on our street. Hopefully I will get around to that shortly.

Kiddos are driving me a bit mad at the moment...cranky DS who I suspect is teething again, is now fully mobile and also has a really bad yeast rash for which we now have a prescription cream. DD is potty training and has her hits and misses. *sigh* How long does this process take, exactly? *LOL* Basically they are sucking up all my attention and I am not handling it well. I even skipped my Bible study homework the past 2 days in lieu of having some unstructured mommy time to myself, where I could read a magazine or the newspaper. I just couldn't handle another type of "brain required" activity. I know, I know...God would have provided. I just didn't let him. I'm too tired to feel too guilty about that, although I'm sure that will come around tomorrow when I actually do it.

Well I have to go off to the grocery store now and get some more milk. I have been skimping on the milk purchasing and now finally have a discount price to justify buying 3 whole gallons at once. Oh, the luxury of it!

No Fat Here (Or, Ay-Yi-Yi-YI, We Have No Money!)

So I have been working on the Budget. That is nearly a four-letter word in this house, but I chose to stick my head in the sand after my initial "Come to Jesus" moments with pen & budget papers from Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover". That was a costly move, to the tune of $XXX in overdraft fees. *gulp* So I sucked it up again, put on my big girl panties, and dealt with the Budget again this month, and we are really sticking to it.

This time I realized that our chief problem, apart from our Debt, is Cash Flow. Mainly, it was a lack of Cash Flow that was negatively impacting our bank account and our lives. So, I have done the mature, grown-up thing this month and attacked the easy bills to give us some breathing room and help us achieve our total money makeover. First call was to the cable company, to see what cable could be cut to lessen the ouch factor to that $100+ monthly bill. High speed internet had to stay for DH's work, but I was able to cut out several tiers for a net savings of $14 per month. It's a start.

Next I changed our phone service from Qworst to the cable company, for a savings of $20 per month, plus an additional $30 over the next three months with their new promo rate. You can bet I'm going to call them again and see if we can't renew that "introductory rate" of $20 per month for unlimited local and long distance when the 3 month period is up. Then I called my cell phone company to inquire about cancelling my contract. That would have been a $275 "ouch", but the CSR suggested I could put my contract into hiatus for 6 months, for a net cost of $15. This will allow me time to save up $$ for cancelling, and also give me time to either find or replace my cell phone, which is still MIA. Odds are I will opt not to replace it if I don't find it, and will just continue to use DH's pay-as-you-go phone.

So by next month, we should see savings of $94 per month on our bills. Just in time, too, as our winter heating season approaches and I know the electricity bill is going to start ticking upward. There is further incentive to stack up all the wood on our lot and scavenge free wood from our neighbors, something we have been too lazy to do up to this point. But frankly, there is not a lot of fat in our budget. I am cancelling the pest control company (finally), which will free up another $33 or so per month. However, there is really not a lot of wiggle room. I talked to DH about giving up his expensive parking for his commute, and trying out the bus. It is a true measure of love and commitment that DH is on board for doing so, even though it will mean fighting his way off the ferry first in order to catch the bus home. That would save us another $80 per month! Every little bit helps. And my new strategy is minimums on the CC (consolidated to one with the lowest and also fixed APR, hallelujah!) and aggressively pay off the car. As far as Cash Flow goes, the car is a HUGE chunk, and once we free up that money we can really aggressively go after that CC, then the HELOC. That's the plan anyway. Stay tuned!

Countermeasures

Watching my children play, it's clear that they are avid subscribers to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, namely, that spontaneous processes contribute to disorder in the Universe at large, and specifically this house. Give my children ten minutes and some toys, and they can scatter them in a perfect random distribution throughout the house. Furthermore, they can turn on toys, faucets, unroll toilet paper, and shred paper or books with uncanny speed and alacrity that is never employed to eat disfavored foods.

Thus, I have begun employing the "just five minutes a day" countermeasure to this clutter and chaos induction. For just five minutes each day, I am attempting to clean up and keep up with the spread of chaos by reintroducing order.

What this is turning into, in practice, is at least five minutes spent cleaning, but often more. I've just spent 30 minutes tidying and cleaning, because one thing inevitably led to another and while I started tidying 2 tables, I progressed to tidying the PlayDoh table, then toys in general, then "Oh my the carpet doesn't react well to Play Doh and it really needs a good vacuuming anyway" and before I knew it I had vacuumed half my house and reorganized the living room toys into an appropriate basket! Behold, the power of the "five minutes a day" head strategy for at least starting to make order from chaos.

Regarding PlayDoh, have you ever noticed how it is impossible to thoroughly clean out PlayDoh from the toys they make to shape it and extrude cool things? It's like the engineers purposefully obscured the design and added tiny little crevices to grab and hold onto the PlayDoh until it falls out, rock solid and unable to be used. I'm quite certain they did this on purpose, because that means eventually you will use up all of your PlayDoh and have to buy more. I wish I could talk to those toy engineers and reassure them on that score. You see, preschoolers leave PlayDoh out until it gets hard and crusty, and then a parent is forced to toss it because it can no longer be shaped. So really, it was unnecessary to badly design the extruder toys, because the child him or her self will render the PlayDoh obsolete far before those crevices can eat it all up. Further, a parent is also forced to wonder if the Dyson can really handle all those large-ish clumps of PlayDoh on the carpet and be forced to pick it up by hand, aggravating any sore back issues that may plague a parent.

Yep, five minutes a day to clean...and at least five to pick up PlayDoh. At least I finished my Bible study homework early today!

Clutter Conquering

I'm not sure if I'm conquering clutter or if it is conquering me...you be the judge.

I have cleared off the dining room table. In fact, I accomplished this momentous deed last night about two minutes before dinner arrived at the table. I cleared off all the crap (piling it out of sight in a chair, in truth) and put a clean tablecloth (my "fall" tablecloth, which makes my heart sigh with happiness when I look at it) on the table just in time for DH to bring dinner out from the kitchen.

There is a very reassuring and comforting feeling to a clean tablecloth at a clean table, devoid of everything but the appropriate eating implements and food vessels. It just makes my heart warm. Ahhhhhh. I was able to enjoy my dinner with my family, and this morning I tackled the pile of clutter that was perched precariously on one of the chairs. I have torn up junk mail credit card solicitations and put them in the woodstove, I've thrown out magazines which I know we will never read, and I have a tidy little pile of things to be filed.

Here is the rub, however--we don't have a place to file them. Our old filing cabinet was falling apart, so we not-so-cleverly threw it out before we moved (a, *ahem* year and a bit ago) and just moved the filing drawers (which were overstuffed anyway). So now I am sort of hobbling along with some filing boxes, including some leftover file boxes from my graduate school days. (To digress briefly, I emptied out some miscellaneous journal papers to render them ready for use and oy, I can remember it like it was yesterday...when do these psychological scars bad vibes go away, huh?)

So, I see a trip to Goodwill to hunt up a working file cabinet in my future. DH has already requested that I find some type of magazine/newspaper rack, as he doesn't like the (admittedly unsightly) pile of them next to the birdcage. What progress we have made...in the early years of our marriage, we would have bought a swanky looking brand new (and flimsy, as our past cabinet attests) file cabinet from Staples or some such Office Supply Store. DH would not even think of buying anything used. Now, seven years later, we are happy to buy used furniture and remake it into our own style (via painting, sanding, whatnot) and can't see the sense of buying something new for an outrageous price when we can find stuff to fit our needs elsewhere or buy something equally functional with some good design for a good price at IKEA. And that warms my heart just as much as a clean table--especially when I look at our credit card balance!!

Intoxicating Independence

DS woke at the ungodly hour of 6:15 this morning, and despite my attempts to coax him back to sleep he insisted that he was ready for the day, as announced by a large SPLAT that necessitated turning on the light, gathering diaper supplies, etc...by which time, he was thoroughly awake and so was I. *sigh* I got myself a cup of coffee and toted him out to the front room where he proceeded to happily entertain himself for 45 minutes before conking out again in the swing, just in time for his sister to wake up--which means a day of them being off-sync from each other looms. Oh joy.

But during that scoot-around time this morning, I enjoyed watching DS enjoy his new independence. He doesn't have forward motion down completely yet, but he has worked out his own system with sitting up and pushing himself up onto his toes, sort of leveraging himself forward. It's quite ingenious really...I'm betting it will delay the onset of "true" crawling because he seems quite content with his own style of forward movement. Watching him, it's like the whole world has opened up for his tactile discovery and enjoyment. It's so darn cute! He is delighted with himself for getting underneath the coffee table, and now that is his favorite place to play with whatever toy has captivated his attention. This morning it was the wipes container, and he spent a merry five minutes using it like a drum and pushing it around. You can almost see the thoughts and wheels turning in his head--hey, this is fun!

DD has her own brand of intoxicating independence moments. Lately it has been being able to put on her socks and underwear by herself, thank you very much! She is also intrigued with hand washing and indeed I have to be quite firm about the number of times and frequency of hand washing. (Tip for those who aren't there yet--the foam hand soaps are much, MUCH easier for beginning hand washers, and you don't have a huge puddle of soap to clean up or attempt to wash off their tiny hands either.) She also has to put on her own shoes and socks. Next is picking out her own clothes, I know, although for now the 'give her two options and let her pick' strategy is working.

I realize the whole goal of parenting is to encourage independence, so that eventually they don't need you any more and are ready to handle things by themselves. Nonetheless, it's quite fascinating, heartwarming, and a bit heartstring-tugging to see your children asserting their independence and mastery of new skills. Sort of a reminder that I'm working myself out of a job...which is entirely as it should be. *sniff*

A Mom's Perspective

There is a long list of things that used to gross me out before I was a parent. Now, they are just an everyday deal, a part of life. Here's a partial list, off the top of my head:

• snot on face/hands/clothes
• boogers on face/hands/clothes/every reachable-to-toddler-hands surface
• soppy baby cereal on face/hands/table/highchair
• half-eaten baby puffs or fruit or toast
• someone else's drink
• someone else drinking out of my drink
• baby poop in all its varieties (brocco-poopy, people...that's all I'm sayin')
• baby spit-up
• vomit

Oh don't get me wrong--I still don't like any of those things. But I deal with them in an off-hand manner that I know our non-parent friends find at best bemusing and at worst, well, gross! Half-eaten, soggy-with-saliva food gets handled and tossed bare-handed, with hand washing done after all clean-up activities are completed. My DD drinks out of my drink on a regular basis, now that I'm convinced she doesn't backwash as much since I don't see big chunks of whatever she's eating in my glass (I conveniently ignore the fact that I've made it a rule that she has to finish eating whatever she's gnawing on before being allowed to drink from my cup). DH & I joke about what kind of poop we are going to find in DS' diaper based on his newest food group. And I really do not know how we lived without baby wipes to clean up just about anything before.

I still strongly dislike projectile vomit, sour milk spit-up, or really vomit of any kind, to be honest. Likewise I have developed a strong loathing for cleaning up urine, although DS eating it or peeing on things doesn't distress me too much since I know urine is sterile coming out of the body, yada yada yada. There's the REAL benefit of my science education! *LOL* DD's accidents bother me because I know that she knows better and she chooses not to do so, in the cases of a deliberate accident (not enough attention, being naughty beforehand). So cleaning up that is more annoying than the times she is too busy playing to stop and use the potty. You know what I mean...they just KNOW the difference at some point.

Anyway, I clean all of that up without a second thought. It's a normal part of my life. I think this is the thing that is really impossible for the non-parent to understand. It's just so a part of your day that you don't bat an eyelash at it any more. I realize that some golden day in the distant future, I will not be dealing with these things on a regular basis, but then I will probably be worrying about broken limbs and blood and will be quite accustomed to bloody scrapes and cuts, etc. When the ever nebulous "they" talk about the joys of parenthood, I think this ought to be included in the Full Disclosure Form, don't you?

Misty Morning Musings

You can tell I've had my coffee this morning, with that whimsical alliteration! *LOL* I also have my lovely parrot Alex sitting on my arm assisting me with blogging this morning, so we'll see how long this lasts before my computer keyboard is under attack.

(now resuming this after extensive head rubbing for Alex, who decided she wanted some love and attention)

I think she's in a good mood because I pressure washed her cage yesterday, so it's nearly as clean as it was when I bought it (and her) ten years ago. (more lovings for Alex) The thing about bird poop is that the uric acid in it eats at paint, though, so it needs to be repainted with a good black powdercoat. Eventually I might do this--maybe next summer when I can pressure wash it again and let it thoroughly dry, then don my work respirator and do it myself. Yep, I'm too cheap frugal to pay someone else $200 (half the cost of the cage!!) when I can do it myself.

I keep looking out of my window at the mist and wondering if I will see the doe who visited us a few weeks ago on a similiar misty morning. And seeing the mist with all the shades of green has me keen to get out my Irish music and throw some on the CD player...not any of the jigs or reels, but something mournful or haunting, to suit the morning. Unfortunately, my DD is still asleep and I don't want to wake her up, as she had a fever and slight cold yesterday. Hopefully the mist and mood will hang around long enough for me to do so, as I don't listen to that music often enough.

I was thinking about my blog title and reminding myself that the genesis for this blogging gig was not entirely the randomness of life's events, but also the incredible thoughtlessness with which I (and I argue most other people) live their lives these days. Our pastor preached a sermon on Proverbs 15:16-17. "Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred."

Related story: we were members of a church in Arizona that supported an orphanage and school in Uganda. Not as in, we send $XXXX every so often (although we did that too), but as in, we actually went there (well a routine group of members did once a year) and we actually had the founder/principal/pastor come and visit us on a semi-regular basis. And those kids eat beans and rice for every meal. EVERY MEAL. And they are BLESSED to get it! The principal talked about how he tried to get some meat for the kids every now and then, but it was very expensive and when you are feeding 400 kids he just couldn't afford it. They cooked over an open pit fire (no kitchen to start, although they had built a 3-sided lean-to with a tarp roof by the time we moved), and the kids bunked, two kids per bunk bed, stacked 3 high, and crammed as many as they could into one building. The caretaker had to chain them and lock them in at night, because of the danger to the kids from witch doctors and other unscrupulous people who would prey on them. So the pastor's greatest fear was fire.

I mean, can you imagine your life in those circumstances? Can we really, and I mean really appreciate all the blessings we've got? These kids were so starved for adult role models, but they were kind to each other, they loved getting hugs from visitors, and their faces just lit up when they were given a small piece of hard candy and some paper and a new pencil. Totally, utterly humbling.

Which is why I am really doing what I can to contribute to Operation Christmas Child in our community. I have bought school supplies at rock bottom prices to provide pens for kids like those. I hope I can get over to our church this weekend to help wrap shoe boxes to hold the goodies for the kids. What a difference something so small can make to a child in such dire circumstances. So I challenge you--the next time you are out grocery shopping, get some paper or pencils for Operation Christmas Child. Drop them off at your local organization's drop-off point. You can find it right here: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/OCC_DropOff_Index.asp?zip=%20&radius=100&OCCPath=1

Make a difference.

Of Clutter and Bribery

Have you ever noticed that clutter is like a Tribble? You clutter up one surface, and it multiplies behind your back to cover surfaces all over your house. It's like you mentally give yourself and other family members subconscious permission to just leave crap lying everywhere when you just let one surface get out of control.

Take my dining table, for example. I put down a newspaper on it the other day (yes, it was the other day and not sometime last week!), and now, a scant few days later, here's a list of what's on it:

1. wicker basket used to serve food
2. DD's "Shopping" book and cardboard cut-outs from the book
3. DD's foam alphabet stickers (in the container, not stuck to the tablecloth)
4. an empty and clean cake plate and cover
5. empty IKEA wood picture frames
6. 12 framed flower pictures for hanging in the kitchen
7. a SECOND wicker basket used to serve food
8. trivet
9. salt & pepper shakers
10. FOUR newspapers
11. coupons
12. assorted bills & mail items
13. the digital camera
14. empty red plastic cup
15. water bottle
16. shopping list pad and pen
17. DD's NWF "Animal Baby" magazine from June (of course)
18. my Bible study binder
19. my laptop
20. Gerber puffs for DS, and the tray from his highchair

You'd have all that on your dining room table, wouldn't you? Of course you would...and so would any other reasonable person in America. That's my Delusion of the Day.

On a completely unrelated note, we have discovered that yes, bribery does work with potty training. DD had been completely refusing to do pooping on the potty, and while she was doing okay with peeing on the potty we were still having a bit too many accidents for my liking. So, I told her on Monday that if she went pee-pee AND poo-poo in the potty ALL WEEK, she could go to Barnes & Noble on Friday and pick out a brand new book! Well, that has done the trick like nothing else! I have also been a bit more vigilant about enforcing potty time, and she has done really, really well. I am not going to count my chickens before they hatch, but I would be oh-so-happy to buy a children's book on Friday.

And on the "Not as Easy as It Looks" front, DH got up with both kiddos this morning in a characteristic act of kindness so that I could sleep in, after a very disturbed night of sleep for us all. DD & DS were quite grumpy and woke several times last night, so I was ecstatic to sleep on, even if my dream involved an annoying return to graduate school and a reminder of how glad I am to be done with that phase of my life. Anyway, I was woken up precisely an hour later by DH storming in, DS in his arms, with an emphatic proclamation of, "I'm sorry but you're just going to have to get up now. I can't do this any more."

Apparently my DD had been diligently practicing using her potty, including using the toilet paper which is sitting on the table next to her potty (in the living room, natch). And DS had rolled/crawled over to check out this potty thing (unsurprisingly, he loves exploring now that he's mobile). So DH moved him, and went about doing something else (not quite clear on this bit), but he came back and found DS...eating bits of pee-soaked toilet paper. (Ewwww!) Yes, my son had crawled over to the potty, opened the lid, and helped himself to the toilet paper. DH was nearly apoplectic with a grinning DS in his arms.

Ahem. This would be why I empty her potty IMMEDIATELY after use. You see, I may appear to be ensconced in email, message boards, and blogs here in the mornings, but I really am paying attention to what my kiddos are getting into (most of the time). It's not as easy as it looks. I smothered my laughter and got up, much to my children's delight. What could be better than TWO tired parents to entertain/annoy? At least DH gets to go to the office 4 days a week. *LOL*

Random "First of the Day" Ramblings

I wonder if, upon being woken by one's DS at 6 am, one really would melt into the floor and die for lack of coffee? Note this is a strictly rhetorical question as I have a steaming hot cup of java right here with me.

The house is cool in the mornings now, and even though it's supposed to get up into the 80s F again today, it is quite pleasant (for now) to have to put on some slipper socks to feel comfortable. Of course, I'm still wearing shorts. It's an odd time of the year.

I have decided that it is OKAY to keep kiddos in PJs until at least mid-morning. With the cool mornings and hot afternoons, I really don't want to deal with repeats of yesterday, where DS didn't nap well in the morning because he was cold...or the other day, when he whined in the afternoon because he was too hot. I categorically refuse to put him in more than one set of clothes per day, unless blow-out diapers necessitate it...I have enough laundry! So he can stay in his warm PJs until the mercury rises a bit.

If one child wakes up early and will not be entertained in your room (*cough* DS *cough*), then you can bet that the other child will be woken up early and will insist on joining you in the living room. I can see an early lunch and early naps in my future today.

As an update for any who might be interested, I have almost reached the end of the 1 skein of fun fur yarn for my first attempt at a scarf, and suffice it to say, it is faaaaaaar too short as I cast on, oh, about 3 times the stitches that the pattern called for, because it didn't look wide enough to me. Ahem. Yes, a complete failure on the first go! I think I am going to unravel it all and start again. Now that I have a better sense of what I'm doing it will hopefully go a bit better this time. Yes, that's the ticket.

And, for reasons that utterly mystify me, I decided DD's room was not "done" enough and I made a ribbon chandelier to suspend from the ceiling around her plain vanilla light fixture. I like how it turned out, even if it's not precisely what I had envisioned when I planned the project. Suffice it to say, getting graceful swoops of ribbon between two wreath frames is harder than one imagines it is. But she's happy, I'm happy, and I'm going to do a modified version for DS's room--a hot air balloon. Eventually. When I, you know, get seized by that freak "MUST CRAFT" impulse. So, probably in a year or so.

Time for breakfast!

My June Cleaver Day

Yesterday was a very odd day for me. If DH had seen the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or "Stepford Wives" he would have been convinced I was a pod person yesterday or a Stepford wife, because he came home to a tidy kitchen (4 loads through the dishwasher!), dinner just coming out of the oven (homemade BBQ chicken pizzas, natch) and a fragrant aroma wafting through the house from the squash poundcake with caramel glaze (all homemade) that was sitting proudly on the cakestand on the dining table for dessert.

If that was it, I would not have felt like June Cleaver yesterday--maybe Rachael Ray or something, but I was actually out of the house multiple times yesterday with the children, including grocery shopping at Costco, Safeway, and a late trip to Fred Meyer in the afternoon after discovering our lone red onion had gone off. As if that weren't crazy enough, I also added to the insanity by going to Joann's to purchase the last few supplies for a craft idea for DD's room that I'd been thinking about for some time. And I used COUPONS at all places, and the kids behaved! Wahoo! DD did not attempt to tear up my coupons or list, I managed to keep them all out of DS's hands (and avoided them being drooled/chewed up).

I spent less than I saved, my children played together nicely and kept out of mischief while I was cooking and baking, and my DD even managed to crack open two eggs and help add them to the cake batter without getting any eggshells into the bowl. It was a miraculous day, which will go down in the record books in this house. Huzzah!

Strange Fall Mood--Apple Pie, Anyone?

So I had a brilliant birthday weekend, thanks to the presence of my parents (child minding!) and a sea kayaking afternoon with my brother on the Sound. DH is (rightly) concerned that now I might want to get a kayak for myself, and after hearing my brother's propaganda insight into the design qualities of his former employer's kayaks, I found myself conversing inexpertly in the subject at an impromptu Labor Day BBQ with our neighbors who have 3 kayaks. Suffice it to say, one kayaking experience does not a kayaker make.

Of course, in the aftermath of the Folks' visit I find my house awash in yet more clutter (and I didn't think it was possible...my parents the clutter experts showed me differently). I am digging out from that, and remain unconvinced that our house will ever be truly clutter-free. I have a ton of dirty laundry to do, and I have been grumbling about the things that they did which I found irritating. Regardless, DH & I agreed that everyone does things that irritate others, and the same goes in our direction. I'm sure my mom was aghast that I wasn't diligently cramming veggies at DS at every opportunity (you slacker mom, you!) and my dad was huffing about the general state of our cars and the corroded battery posts ("You're going to come out here one morning and all it's going to do is to go 'click' and you'll be stuck. Where's that battery post spray I bought you for cleaning them?" I bit my tongue to keep from mentioning that the only time I have dead battery problems with my car is when they visit and don't shut the doors properly and my battery runs down...but I digress.)

So my house is incredibly untidy, and to be fair, it wasn't perfectly tidy when they arrived, either. Somehow our furniture rearranging left us with a den/family room that feels like a TV set. We have a cozy, intimate seating area with our sofabed, coffee table, end table, and chair and ottoman, all arranged in front of the woodstove. Then there is the long wall opposite the chair, where we currently have DH's desk, a medium-sized bookcase, and my sewing table, with the walkway through to the hallway between all of these items and the perpendicular sofabed. So it really does feel like a TV set--we just need a camera poised where the bookcase stands, and it could be a sitcom. Hmmmmmm...not quite what we were going for. Further rearrangements will be forthcoming, I have no doubt. DH has happily termed it "Half a Room".

However, seeing the cozy domestic scene, I was inspired to finally empty our ash pot onto the compost heap, in anticipation of cozy fall days with tea, a book, and a warm fire. Mysteriously my children are absent from these cozy imagined scenes of domestic bliss, for surely when such days do arrive I will be greeted by a range of toys strewn all over, my DS howling from a close and unfortunate crawling encounter with a table leg or the hearth, and countless bits of snack spilled on the (thankfully wood) floor.

I even entertained myself today during naptime with visions of a fun fall party for the kids and some mom friends. I could cut out fun shapes in potato halves, cover the deck table with craft paper, and let the kids stamp their own artwork with washable tempura paint. They could also each make their own apple brown betties to take home, and while they painted the moms could enjoy some coffeecake, coffee and/or tea, and some adult conversation. Hmmmmmmm, maybe I will actually do that. I just need to finish digging us out of the dirty laundry, clutter, and dirty dishes. Hahahahaha!